I'm wanting to see more well-rounded policy that can be supported by the major parties regardless of 'who floated it', hoping for better enduring government rather than this 'rip and replace' bullshit.

Obviously with the right wong think tanks invading, this is nothing more than a thought exercise, but i reckon its worth exploring.

My heretical angle is significantly reducing thenterms that parties have in power - not extending to 4 years but instead reducing to 1 or 18 months. The thinking being: If you cant get anything done because the only work one is interested in doing is ideological nonsense that caters to a narrow part of society maybe it shouldn't get off the ground in the first place?

This sounds like an amazing development for them

While I'm never excited about these general uses, it seems like they did a reasonably good job with this experiment. Hopefully other Dept's don't just loosely 'throw it in'...

Some tidbits:

The AI operated on a fixed dataset. It did not collect information, nor did it tap into the main client record systems, so privacy risks were low.

It did not learn from the queries staff made or the information they used with it, and did not add that information to its learning banks, the reports said.

The two tests - first with 25 staff, then with 300 - found that along with boosts to service came gains in employee wellbeing, such as helping people with ADHD or poor hearing focus more in meetings, or those with dyslexia to revise content.

I was curious to hear what people think of the telecom breakup into chorus (and wasn't there a third party as well?) after all these years?

I was working there at the time, so some of the staff training was entertaining. I felt like they seemed to be on board with the general thrust of the changes, which I was a little surprised about (I expected a little more lip-service, I guess?)

Has it been a good change? I feel like the national fibre has been great but that's not actually related (but may have relied on the breakup as a precursor?)

What got me the most was:

"I am really comfortable with asking government agencies to consider, are there ways that you can innovate to deliver the same level of service while taking less taxpayer dollars to do it."

"In fact, that should be how we conduct ourselves every day, not just in the lead up to a Budget"

Honestly, we've been doing that every year for decades, now!

Now is time to change Te Papa's Treaty of Waitangi display, the museum's co-leaders say.

It comes after the museum left a defaced version of the Treaty of Waitangi on display over summer to enable "valuable conversations" about te Tiriti o Waitangi

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Te Papa said it would consult with te Tiriti experts, iwi and communities for the permanent exhibition

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The removed panel will be stored by the museum, and while no decision has been made about its future, Johnston said it was part of the exhibition's history and the story of te Tiriti o Waitangi.